logo
Search for Australia's worst boss

Search for Australia's worst boss

Perth Now2 days ago
Australians with horror stories about their boss could win $5000 in a new competition aimed at finding the nation's worst employer.
HR tech company Compono is searching for Australia's most 'outrageous, hilarious or just plain unbelievable' bad boss story.
Submissions for Australia's worst boss start on August 15 and will run through until September 15.
Compono will shortlist the 10 most 'jaw-dropping' entries for Australians to vote on the nation's worst boss story. Australians could win $5000 on their bad boss stories. iStock Credit: Supplied
The winner will be announced on October 13, with the person who unfortunately has the worst boss story getting a $5000 holiday voucher along with three-one-on-one sessions with a workplace psychologist.
Compono chief executive Ruby Crous said we've all experienced a bad boss during our working lives.
'They're often promoted without the training, support, or self-awareness needed to lead well,' he said.
'This campaign puts a spotlight on the behaviours employees quietly put up with every day while showing what great leadership could look like instead.'
Mr Crous says the competition is not about naming and shaming but helping leaders learn.
'If we can openly talk about these stories and learn from them, we're already one step closer to creating workplaces that don't drive us crazy. Better bosses aren't a myth, they're just leaders who've had the right support,' he said. Compono will donate $1 for every vote to R U OK?. Picture Supplied Credit: Supplied
For every vote, Compono will donate $1 to mental health charity R U OK?.
'We know that poor leadership can have a serious impact on mental health. That's why we're proud to support R U OK? through this campaign. It's one more way we're helping to bring wellbeing into the leadership conversation,' Mr Crous said.
Research released by Gallup earlier in the year showed just 23 per cent of Aussies were engaged with their job, costing the country $223bn.
Gallup managing director Claire DeCarteret said employers who meet the needs of employees would in turn get a boost to their own business.
'We don't know if it's that they don't like their job, but they're not emotionally connected to the work that they're doing every day, and mainly it's because they're going through the motions,' Ms DeCarteret previously told NewsWire.
'They may not be supported by a great manager, and a lot of the time, it's that their needs are not being met in the workplace.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Growth can put spark into younger generations' future
Growth can put spark into younger generations' future

Perth Now

time18 minutes ago

  • Perth Now

Growth can put spark into younger generations' future

Australia is failing its younger generations and the chair of the Productivity Commission believes a policymaker "growth mindset" can help. Danielle Wood says the generational bargain is in peril. "Young people today believe they won't live better lives than their parents did," the head of the nation's economic think tank will say at the National Press Club on Monday. "I'm worried too." Australians born in the 1990s were the first generation not to earn more than those in the decade before them. Now in their 30s, millennials are struggling to enter the property market "as policy choices have contributed to house prices growing much faster than incomes for the best part of three decades". This generation will also bear the brunt of climate change and the cost of decarbonisation, made worse by policymakers who have dodged the cheapest options, namely a national carbon price. Ms Wood, due to speak before the federal government's economic reform roundtable on Tuesday, says the challenges facing younger generations amount to productivity problems. About squeezing more from less, productivity allows wages to grow and helps "build things better and faster", such as homes and clean energy infrastructure. The commission has already spelled out a long list of recommendations to kickstart anaemic productivity growth in five separate reports released before the roundtable. Suggestions include reforming the corporate tax system and financial incentives for workplace training. Ms Wood will also call for an attitude shift at the highest levels of government policymaking and delivery. "This 'growth mindset' - an elevation of growth and the benefits it brings - has been missing from Australian policy for far too long," she said. She will point to the "growth of the regulatory burden" as symptomatic of a policy culture failing to prioritise growth. "Regulatory hairballs" are everywhere, she will argue, from 31-step approvals and licensing surveys for would-be Queensland cafe owners to "evermore stringent requirements for energy efficiency in the construction code". Australia's key economic stakeholders are set to gather in Canberra to propose solutions to the nation's ailing productivity as part of the government's hotly anticipated roundtable. Almost 30 groups representing farmers, pharmacies, universities and small, medium and large businesses have urged the government to reduce red tape and reform taxes without raising costs. "Australia is facing an uncertain future unless we fix the real challenges within our economy," Business Council of Australia chief executive Bran Black said. Environment groups have also urged the government to address concerns like nature law reforms. "Nature's economic role is too important to leave out of national reform conversations," Australian Land Conservation Alliance chief executive Jody Gunn said. "If we invest in the solutions it brings, we all win."

Australia needs to cough up its ‘regulatory hairballs', declares PC boss
Australia needs to cough up its ‘regulatory hairballs', declares PC boss

Sydney Morning Herald

time5 hours ago

  • Sydney Morning Herald

Australia needs to cough up its ‘regulatory hairballs', declares PC boss

Productivity Commission boss Danielle Wood is calling on all levels of government to launch a war on red tape and bureaucracy, describing an avalanche of laws over recent years as 'regulatory hairballs' that have held back living standards. Before the federal government's three-day economic roundtable, which Treasurer Jim Chalmers says will tackle red tape in areas from housing to mining approvals, Wood will use a speech on Monday to argue that politicians have sought to over-regulate the country at the expense of economic growth and opportunities for all Australians. Wood is one of the key attendees at the roundtable that will include business, community and union leaders who will canvass issues ranging from the shape of the tax system to the rise of AI to the lack of competition across parts of the economy. In an address to the National Press Club, Wood will say that economic growth has fallen down the list of priorities. Governments at all levels have instead focused on other policy goals. This had contributed to 'regulatory creep' where governments feel they have to respond to any issue with new laws or red tape, as voters looked to a 'Canberra fix' that ultimately led to decisions that slowed growth. Loading She will argue all governments should follow the lead of the administration of former American president John F. Kennedy, which put up signs in the US Commerce Department asking: 'What have you done for growth today?' 'Perhaps it's time to distribute that sign to government agencies and ministerial offices all around our country,' she will say. 'Regulatory hairballs have found their way into almost every corner of our economy. Growth has simply fallen down the list of priorities in policymaking.'

Agency chief's solution to economy woes
Agency chief's solution to economy woes

Perth Now

time5 hours ago

  • Perth Now

Agency chief's solution to economy woes

Decision makers must adopt a 'growth mindset' to fix the productivity problem plaguing the economy, according to Australia's productivity tsar. Labor's highly anticipated Economic Reform Roundtable will kick off on Tuesday, bringing together 'a range of people with a range of views', as described by Anthony Albanese. The point of getting unions, business leaders, and policy experts in the same room as politicians is building consensus on how to boost productivity, or how efficiently an economy produces goods and services. Productivity Commission (PC) chair Danielle Wood will use a major speech on Monday to call on fellow roundtable attendees to be bold as they 'thrash out potential reforms to kickstart Australia's flagging productivity growth', warning that failure could bust the 'generational bargain' of handing over a better country to the future. 'I'm thrilled by the new appetite for economic reform that the roundtable has created over the past two months,' Ms Wood will tell the National Press Club, according to a copy of her speech seen by NewsWire. 'Ultimately the government will be judged on its actions and the outcomes they achieve. 'But it has taken an important step by recognising and pursuing economic growth, and the productivity that drives it, as a prime goal of policy. 'This 'growth mindset' – an elevation of growth and the benefits it brings – has been missing from Australian policy for far too long.' Productivity Commission chair Danielle Wood is calling for a 'growth mindset'. Aaron Francis / The Australian Credit: News Corp Australia Faced with challenges posed by geopolitical turmoil, climate change and an ageing population, she will point out that young Australians do not believe they will have 'better lives than their parents'. 'The expectation that life will get better for each successive generation is Australia's generational bargain,' Ms Wood said. 'For many generations we have fulfilled its promise. Until, perhaps, this one. 'Overwhelmingly, young people today believe they won't live better lives than their parents did. 'As chair of the Productivity Commission, I'm worried too.' She will note that the PC has already given the Albanese government some options. Her agency released five reports over the past month zooming in on key areas, ranging from increasing economic agility and workforce training to harnessing artificial intelligence and the net zero transition. On economic dynamism, the PC proposed reforming Australia's corporate tax system to encourage business investment, which has declined since the Global Financial Crisis. It would cut the corporate tax rate for most businesses to 20 per cent and introduce a 5 per cent cashflow tax on all businesses, with a view to creating friendlier conditions for investors. The result, according to Ms Wood, 'would increase investment by $7.4bn and GDP by $14.6bn'. 'Big enough to get out of bed for, I would think,' she will say. Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell has commented on the Albanese government's upcoming economic roundtable. 'We know in terms of tax reform, GST and capital gains tax and negative gearing have already been ruled out by the PM,' Mr Clennell said. 'But there does seem to be consideration of a road user charge.' On AI, the PC warned against a new overarching regulatory framework for AI and instead update existing regulations to address risks like fraud and discrimination. 'This would translate to an additional $116bn in economic activity – equivalent to boosting incomes for each Australian by $4300 a year over that period,' Ms Wood will say. 'A growth mindset means that we must not regulate our way out of this opportunity.' Less regulation was an overarching theme in all the PC's reports. Using those the reports as guides, Ms Wood will put forward three 'lessons about what a growth mindset looks like'. 'Regulate with growth in mind,' she will say, calling for 'leadership from the top when the policy sausage is being made'. The Albanese government's Economic Reform Roundtable will kick off on Tuesday. Martin Ollman / NewsWire Credit: News Corp Australia In a nod to AI, she will say, 'Real growth comes from new ideas and technology,' arguing that productivity growth comes from new ideas, products, processes, and ways of managing people. While physical inputs have limits, human ingenuity does not, Ms Wood will say. Therefore, a growth mindset should focus on fostering innovation and enabling Australia to benefit from its own inventions and those of others. Her final lesson is that productivity 'is a game of inches'. 'There is simply no single policy reform that can bring productivity growth back to its long-term average of 1.6 per cent,' Ms Wood will say. 'To shift the dial, governments will have to make a lot of pro-productivity decisions.' Though, acknowledging the mammoth task, she will say she is 'optimistic that there is a package here that can make a difference to Australia's prosperity'. 'Governments must embed the importance of growth in every decision they make,' Ms Wood will say. 'This means engaging with trade-offs, better program delivery and design, and the 'boring but important work' of reducing administrative burden. 'We must ensure that governments pursue a growth agenda, for the benefit of businesses and workers today and, more importantly, for the generations to come. 'And that's worth a few days locked in a room.'

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store